Family Room Pillows

 Isn't it grand when one can get excited by just the smallest victories? Today I am celebrating the completion of four new pillows for our family room sofa. It's such a small improvement in this room's decor, but it brightens things up considerably.

My journey through this pillow project began after finishing a pillow for our bed. I was so impressed by how a bit of extra time and attention in the quilting of a pillow top really makes for a more polished look. I transferred that realization into couch cushions with these four pillows.

Pillow number 1 was not intended to be a singleton, but when I went to make a matching pillow, I discovered that I'd misjudged how much fabric remained. That led me to digging out the fabric I would use in pillows number 2 and 3.

To complete the set of 4, I used remaining bits of the two blue floral fabrics and pieced an 18" block. Believe it or not, I had a pattern from an on-line sew along saved, and it worked out perfectly.

All I needed to do was to adjust the cutting for two fabrics and a background (instead of four like the pattern has), and stitch into a pillow top. Easy peasy. This pieced pillow required less quilting, so it finished fast.

Now, I will focus  my attention on new pillow for the front room sofa. I have the pillow forms; just need to pull the fabric. I am undecided on the color I want to go with, as well as the design I want. Maybe more whole-cloth pillows; maybe pieced. A mystery!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

A Second Pillow

 Bit by bit, I will get all my pillows made. I now have a second one finished, fresh off the sewing machine last evening.

In this post from awhile ago, I shared my goal of refreshing some of my decor around here. Pillows offer a lot of pizzazz easily and economically.

Yes, you correctly noticed that this pillow is not an exact mate of the first. My error in thinking that my additional fabric on the first pillow was enough for a second. It was not. Durnnit! This meant I had to get creative and find equally pleasing fabric to coordinate with the first. It pays to have a sizeable fabric stash; digging commenced and have a look at what I unearthed!

Similar enough to work together, don't you think? By using the same vertical quilting, and blues that are really close in shade/hue, I believe I have sufficiently pulled them together. I DO have enough of the multi-floral print to make another pillow, so that will be next. Then I will consider using the bits left over in a simple pieced top. Hopefully that will complete a "look".

The first pillow is made with fabric by Timeless Treasure; additional information unavailable. The second pillow is made with AGF fabric by Maureen Cracknell called Flower Child.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Sprucing Up

It's not all stitching and quilting around here. Over the past several weeks, we've done a fair amount of sprucing up - both big jobs and little ones. Let's have a look at some of the activity.

A couple of months ago, my sister gave me this old milk can found in her barns. As I finished off the potting of all my flowers, I knew this needed to come out so that I could place a pot on top. Bring on the spray paint!

A shiny coat of black paint brings new life to the old can. I should have hosed it down before taking this picture; already it shows signs of dirt. The pot that the petunias are in was also spray painted with the same glossy black, and makes a nice cohesive look for showing off the flowers. Here's a picture of some of the other painted pots.

Not everything has been spray painted black. I had an old bar stool that I once used in my classroom. It was still sturdy, but needed a refresh. How I didn't think to take a true before picture, I don't know, but here is one just as I was painting it.

This stool had been stained wood with a padded seat. The seat base was particle board covered with padding and faux leather which had split. It had gotten wet at some point and the particle board had expanded, too.

DH cut a new seat of plywood which I covered and attached. Voila! A new bar stool to match the big blue check already in our decor.

Now, for the really big sprucing up job, we have had cement poured for a new sidewalk, garage apron, and porch steps. This has been weeks in the making and it's still not completely finished. It is quite an involved effort, so I will pull that all together for another post.

Our day yesterday was a trip to Mansfield to visit Kingwood Center Gardens. We went last summer and enjoyed it so much that we knew we wanted to go back. I took tons of pictures, so that can be the subject of an upcoming post, as well.

I also did get to stitch a bit later in the day after we got home. I am close to having my Lady of the Lakes flimsy finished. Stay tuned!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Returning The Favor

I spent a happy afternoon yesterday at my niece Abby's house. She needed some assistance on a home decorating project she'd begun.

Here is Abby, comfortable in her dining area where we were set up for sewing. See that cool map behind her? I will explain how that was done at the end of this post. First, I need to take care of the sewing project.

Back in early August, Abby came here to help me with a project with the express purpose of learning how to do these sorts of jobs herself. She was a huge help in making a chair slipcovering which I shared in this post. We worked and stayed at it until finished! I surely would have quit midway had she not been here.

Now back at Abby-Doodle's house. (Doodle - a loving nickname) While Abby's ultimate goal is recovering her sofa, she started out with something way more manageable - a porch swing cushion. When I got to her house, she had already taken apart the old cover, used it for a pattern to cut the new, and had pinned the pieces together, right sides together. She was stumped on the back closure. Her plan to reuse the original zipper failed as it was most likely dry-rotted and disintegrated as she was removing it from the fabric. We thought an envelope-type fold would work, or maybe attach some buttons or Velcro, or even ties.

We left it at just being pinned, as Abby decides what she prefers doing. I have every confidence that she can handle it from here. Doesn't it look great? The original cushion had piping, but it looks perfectly fine without, and it was definitely a faster job for omitting it.

Here is the sofa which will be recovered. Whoa! That's a whopper! It intimidates me, but she is sure she can do it! Yikes!

And here's that cool graphic artwork behind the dining table. You will not believe how this was made. Ingenious.

The map began as a shower curtain. It was cut into thirds and stretched onto frames that they built to fit the length and width of each section. Then the panels are simply leaned against the wall. Does it not look fantastic? It has major WOW-factor impact for an inexpensive DIY. What smart kids!

That's all for today, Peeps. We have some work to get done before Buckeye football time!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Refurbishing

Fifteen years ago, my sweet friend Sharon - yes, the friend who regularly comes to sew - moved from her house to a condo. This necessitated parting with several items that would no longer work in the new setting - namely, outdoor furniture. I have pictured many times the two lovely white wicker pieces on our screened porch that came by way of Sharon. Here is a link to a 2010 post that shows the pieces, and I'll insert a picture here of the rocker which I enjoy most mornings with my coffee.

Well, completely forgotten these past 15 years is another item that came at the same time - a porch swing. While we have a perfectly functional front porch for a swing, for whatever reason, this was never a priority for us. We put the swing on a slab outdoors near our lilac bush, and over the years, it had become quite hidden from view - and, consequently, forgotten.

DH pulled out the swing a week or two ago; he informed me that he thought it might possibly be sturdy enough to use. Would I want to? YES!

So we gave it a bath with the power washer on Saturday. Take a look at the weathering grime needing removed.

A close-up of the mossy residue of 15 years. Now see the difference, side-by-side.

I am encouraged that the wood remained in tact even under the force of the power washer. Fifteen years of weather exposure surely took its toll, but the structure seems sound. Only one board seemed to be loose when zapped with the sprayer.

Isn't she pretty, once again? She still needs to be lightly sanded, and I think I will cover it with a generous layer of weatherproofing sealant. And I will get DH to tighten up any spots that seem to need reinforcing - I don't think there are many.

You can see that the chains are still attached; we'll need to check the sturdiness of those, then see about installing eye-hooks on the front porch ceiling. As for decorating, I am sure I will make a seat cushion, add a quilt and some throw pillows.

In all the 27 years we have lived here, I don't suppose we have sat on the front porch for more than a handful of times. It has never been an inviting spot, and the screened porch was always much preferred. It may be safe to say things are a'changin'!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

More Home Dec

I confess that while this has always been meant to be a quilting blog, I have shared a fair amount of other types of work here lately. This summer alone I have made porch curtains and a bedspread. I am here today to share the making of a slipcover for an ancient upholstered chair.

Above is the chair, minus its cushion. I didn't think to get a before picture with it in place. Perhaps a bit of history is necessary at this point.

I bought this chair back in the summer of 1975 for the grand sum of $1. Yes, that's right - one dollar. Mom and I went to a nearby town to attend an estate auction, and at the very end of the day's proceedings this chair came up and since almost everyone had gone home (all the good stuff had been sold, I suppose) I got a steal.

At the time of purchase, the chair was covered in an antiquated fabric that was scratchy and worn. Nonetheless, the chair was sturdy and comfortable. Why I thought I needed to take a big overstuffed chair like this to a small college dorm room, I have no idea. But that was my purpose, and I did just that. All four years at school, I had this chair in my room/apartment.

After graduation, I married and the chair made its way into our home. Some time in the next couple years, I took the chair to an upholsterer who put on the plaid it still wears. And it is showing the filth of 35+ years of wear and grime. Blehhh!

When our daughter Erin moved to her own apartment about 10 years ago, this chair went with her. With plans to slipcover it, she bought a bolt of blue suede microfibre home decor fabric and gave it a start. She tells me that she was dissatisfied with how slippery it was to work with, and then her cat loved sleeping on it making it gross, and well, then she quit, barely midway through the project.

So, it came back to my house, along with the bolt of fabric. Below is a picture of the cushion covered with the new fabric. The chair is still sturdy and comfortable! It's worthwhile to make the effort to update it.

I removed all the pieces Erin had fitted onto the chair - most were far too dirty and cat-hairy to try to salvage - especially when I still had most of a bolt of fabric from which to cut new pieces. Below is the fabric to be discarded.

At about the same time I was planning to tackle this project, my niece Abby (just a couple years younger than Erin) asked me if I had any knowledge or skill with upholstering, as she is interested in recovering her sofa. When I told her I had a chair that I was going to slipcover, she was interested in watching, helping and learning. And that is what the remainder of this post is about - last Wednesday, Abby and her mom, my sister Sandy, came over for a day of upholstering work.

Abby catches on fast, let me tell you. There was nothing that she didn't grasp really quickly. To say she can take the bull by the horns (sorry for the trite phrasing) would be an accurate comparison of how she operates. We made a good team, as she pushed through any moments when I otherwise would have thrown in the towel (ah, there's another one!).

In the midst of my crazy-messy sewing room, Abby got straight to work on the sewing machine. I worked on my other machine making the work go rather quickly.

Let's just take a look at some of the photos of the progress.

Finally, all the major work was done. I am left with the task of hemming it all around the bottom and fastening the ties for the back of the chair. I need to buy some upholstery pins to use in some strategic places to make this chair look tidier.

Abby, I am happy to report, is gung-ho on the idea of tackling her sofa. I will be heading over to return the help that she gave me. I am glad she feels confident in our ability to do a whole sofa; I am a bit intimidated at the thought of it, frankly!

My chair will never be awarded any prizes for outstanding workmanship, but it will serve as an easy chair in that same bedroom with the new bedspread. After I take care of the finishing touches, I will drape a throw over it, and it will look just grand.

Happy Quilting, Friends!